Organic Chemistry

Organic Chemistry is a branch of chemistry which studies properties of compounds containing carbon, and their compositions, their reactivity and builds a mechanism of their preparation.

Modern organic chemistry can trace its origin to the middle of the 19th century when Wöhler synthesized urea and showed for the first time that man can prepare organic substrates believed earlier to be the exclusive domain of the Almighty One.

The start was somewhat modest since it was a completely new subject and some basic rules and phenomena had to be established and understood. As a result, however, an explosion of advanced discoveries took place which turned organic chemistry into one of the most useful sciences of the human race, responsible for the establishment of most prolific industry worldwide. The reader is probably aware of all the polymers developed for most of our clothes and shoes such as polyesters, acrylates polyamides and alike. Various types of polyethylenes and propylenes, many kinds of nylons found in carpets, tires, cars, homes etc. The most sturdy teflons and biodegradable polymers, to mention just a few, were also conditideveloped. Without air conditioning and refrigeration, paper manufacturing, hundreds of bright colors and many more features, our world woould not be as it is now. Of course, if not for modern organic chemistry, there would be no way to grow enough food for the exploding population and worldwide starvation will spread with horrible consequences. Another most conspicuous achievement of this branch of science is the development of hundreds of drugs responsible for increasing our life-span almost threefold during the last century.

Today, one of the most important offsprings of organic chemistry is what is called cell, or molecular biology (including biochemistry), which is fundamentally based on this branch of science.

The above are only some examples of what this field of science contributed to the human race. Indeed the slogan “Better Life Through (Organic) Chemistry” is very appropriate for the era we are living in.